When it was leaked that the military had developed a program that could determine truth from falsehood of videotaped speakers, it was quickly buried under a ton of denials. Such technology in the hands of the public would have ended the ability of politicians to effectively lie to the public via television.
What the world needs now, is a technology that can determine what text lies beneath the "redaction ink".
Considering how many of these censored docs are floating around today, an entire encyclopedia of hidden reality could be composed for the benefit of mankind and the detriment of the criminals that now form the bulk of government rosters.
"This is entirely about understanding how a US court interprets a US law. But that interpretation is secret, meaning that the law itself is secret, and apparently the executive branch of the federal government is going to fight to keep it that way."
Well of course it is going to fight to keep it that way.
To allow the public to know how the fed uses the law to spy on the public, is in effect, aiding and abetting the enemy - of the fed.
That of course, is the fed's new secret interpretation of "treason" - giving aid or comfort to the non-wealthy public.
Let's face it. The only people that US law protects today, are criminals. You want to be protected by the laws of the land, you must join the ranks of the crooks, but you have to steal a bundle of cash first to prove you're worthy.
Reminds me of the way the wealthy ran the dark ages.
They gave the peasants a choice:
Join the ranks of the castled soldiers and get fed and housed in return for looting and torturing peasants, or remain a peasant.
"why is the USTR and President Obama directly trying to undermine Congress' sole authority over copyright and patent policy?"
Sounds like standard corporate procedure to me. After all, what corporation tells the public what its planning to do, when those plans are utterly detrimental to the public??
I see no reason why USA Inc., commonly known as the Federal Government, should warn the public of their plans to insure the eternal profits of their Entertainment Industry partners and friends at public expense and risk the public's angry response and possible failure of their plans.
That's simply not how corporations do things.
But you probably thought the US Federal Government was something other than the Entertainment Industry's Public Relations Contracter, didn't you. :)
Methinks likening the expansion of public rights to a disease, is, for those who made the statement, very true.
Most of the legal work being done by these dinosaur corporations and their pet organizations is carried out behind closed doors, in secret, away from the public, because they rightly believe that the public would, were it to become aware of the desired maximalist results, interfere greatly with the construction of these new laws.
Currently, the public is still pretty much ignorant of this move to eliminate innovation and preserve the ability of the coporate owners of current inventions and art to profit eternally at public expense.
Should the public become aware of this, it could indeed create a situation similar in many ways to an epidemic of public interest, blowing away the ability of these "ownership maximalists" to work in secrecy.
"Like reforming the currency system that currently demands the US government borrow a dollar from the federal reserve for every dollar minted,"
I believe that's $1.07 borrowed for every dollar printed actually. That's $1,070,000 to print $1,000,000.
The laws were changed to allow this top level "cream" usury charge.
That's where the "deficit" really comes from.
Usury; once established in society as "business-as-usual", knows no limits, and eventually, the lion's share of actual cash is stashed in banks as soon as its printed, so it can earn interest for the rich, which in turn removes cash from circulation and forces the Fed to have more printed.
"The fact that President Obama hasn't yet fired Alexander in particular is fairly incredible, given this latest revelation."
First, Obama is an employee. He does what he is told and knows only enough to do what he is told. Obama cannot fire any of the NSA operatives, chiefs or spokespeople, as they are also just employees like him. Permission from the bosses would need to be secured first and Obama's bosses are simply ecstatic over the awesome job their employees are doing.
All one has to do is momentarily perceive the Fed as a corporate board of directors taking its orders from the men and women of real power and wealth who currently own the USA and all of these "odd occurrences" suddenly make complete sense, like the absolute lack of any disciplinary measures - or should I say the absolute lack of even the discussion of possible disciplinary measures - against anyone at the NSA.
Its pretty obvious, even for those without common sense, that if nobody is being disciplined for any of the dispicable actions of the Federal Security Industry, then everyone is doing their jobs exactly as they have been ordered to do.
Get used to it America. You have been invaded, conquered and occupied and now live under the rule of a foreign power - corporate wealth.
"Furthermore, the goal of a free society should not be to stop terrorists from any possible way of communicating in secret, but to recognize that this is going to happen no matter what, and to focus on alternative means of policing, intelligence and law enforcement to do our best to protect against it."
Actually, the bolded part of this statement is incorrect.
Terrorists are not attacking the USA because they hate our freedoms, or our lifestyle, or any of the common but utterly silly rationalizations given by those who profit from having an "enemy" to blame things on and to use as an excuse for stripping Americans of every last right and legal protection in the name of security.
Terrorism - real terrorism - is entirely a response to Military Adventures by greater powers such as the USA, invading the lands and destroying the social infrastructures of resource-rich, or small, foreign nations, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, for domestic commercial reasons. It is a response to Empire Building.
If the Russians had invaded the USA and plowed all your homes into the ground and killed all your able-bodied men and boys and destroyed your hospitals, schools and businesses, you can damn well bet that American survivors would immediately become "terrorists" in the eyes of the Russian Occupation and would whenever possible, find ways to bring their anger to the shores of Russia itself.
That form of rebellion against invasion and eradication, is common to all nations, all peoples.
If you stop invading and destroying other people's countries and mass-murdering their citizens, you eliminate terrorism altogether, thus the no matter what part is removed from the equation altogether, eliminating the need to fight Terrorism altogether.
If you buy into the false rationalization that Terrorists exist because Americans have SUVs and flat screen TVs, then you might as well accept the rest of the Fed's crap and admit you believe that the NSA needs to have a Snoop and Scoop office in your bedroom to protect the USA from Alien Invaders.
... or have your tinfoil hat upgraded to sheet metal.
I realize its very very difficult for most people to grasp the simple fact that they are being lied to, robbed and used as cannon fodder by the "trusted" institutions they hold most dear. That is perfectly normal.
But all that is necessary to understand what is actually taking place in the real world, is to realize that these reported "abuses of power" by various federal agencies are not abuses at all, but are in fact, the actual intended functions of the these agencies.
They simply believed, as do all criminals, that they would never get caught.
Just a simple note pertaining to the dis-establishment of the DHS, and any other federal government agency or operation, including the Fed itself.
The federal government in all its myriad hats has been a fully obsolete construct for well over 50 years.
As much as 90% of all Federal Government operations are designed to either appear to resolve crisis which the Federal Government, through its minions, has created beforehand, or to create crisis which it can later appear to be attempting to resolve.
The members of the federal government - mainly men and women of vast wealth - are well aware of its obsolescence and uselessness and they endeavour every day in every way at their disposal to insure its continuity and their own ability to feed at the public tax trough eternally, primarily by manufacturing false crisis which make the federal governement appear to be essential and necessary and through destabilization via the many three letter agencies it maintains for this purpose, such as the DHS.
All truly essential functions of the Federal Government could be easily handled by a pair of 13 year olds and a good computer.
Eliminating the Federal Government and its myriad agencies would save the US tax payers - and the tax payers of any other nation supporting a similar parasitic organism - hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with absolutely no noticeable effect on international and domestic intercourse, save possibly, a greater fluidity and definitely a huge increase in personal wealth among the public at large.
Like any large predator however, they will fight to the death to prevent their dissolution at the hands of their perceived prey.
Actually, the DHS has been a perfect success and has accomplished all of its original goals and much more and intends to continue to be an effective tool for those who created it, far into the future.
It is simply that the DHS's real goals and the public's notion of its real goals, are two entirely different things.
As always with the Fed, what you see is never what you get.
For those interested, all that is necessary to discern its true goals, is to list its actual effects on the US constitution, law, public safety, national security and the bank accounts of its leadership.
To comment more directly on this article, I have to say that if I were Mister Alexander, and I wanted Wall Street to keep on thinking that I was NOT already tapping their every communication, I would regularly ask them to let me do so in exactly the manner noted above.
I would make it sound like all I wanted to do was protect them from bad guys, as if I was utterly unaware of the huge security breach such access would create for Wall Street.
That way they would keep on thinking I was some sort of moron, and keep on thinking the moron was NOT yet surveilling their whole system.
If you're still wondering why these guys retain their employment, this might lend a clue. :)
This is probably not the best forum to air this thought, but it occurred while reading it, so....
With all of the years of secret intrusions into the internet, including as it turns out, direct links to the web backbone, and NSA operatives creating backdoors into unknown web software with unknown capabilities, it occurred to me that it may now be possible for law enforcement to have "evidence" of wrong-doing, such a state secrets or kiddie-porn, planted directly onto a citizen's computer for later "discovery" by LEOs, eliminating the need to actually catch real bad guys and enhancing law enforcement's apparent effectiveness in the public's eye.
And then it occurred to me that real perps could use this very same process to deny ownership of real state secrets or kiddie porn they made or bought, that was found on their computers by LEOs, simply by claiming the LEOs had downloaded the material to their computers through the backdoors that have been manufactured for specifically that purpose by NSA operatives working inside IT companies.
In a way, the global surveillance of the public has created a near perfect escape clause for criminals who get caught with contraband material on their computer, since it is widely known now that Law Enforcement has the capabilities to pull off such stunts and the bad track record that proves they really would use it in such a manner.
At the same time, it has created a tremendous opportunity for Authority to plant evidence on the computers of innocents who have in some way, angered the powers that be or who stand in the way of those on top of the food chain getting what they desire.
They have done nothing to solve the known problems facing law enforcement through this overwhelming public surveillance, but have definitely created a greater problem than was originally apparent, both for the public and themselves.
Funny how nobody noticed the gunman and his gun, but the press has a perfect moment by moment description of the gunman's various activities and constant displays of the gun prior to and through the shooting.
Must have been a surveillance camera on board and an equally pre-occupied camera attendant somwhere I guess.
Personally, I give the story a BS rating of 10 out of 10.
"It also underlines why we should celebrate Snowden as a whisteblower who has performed a valuable service, not as a "traitor", since nothing of value was passed to the enemy."
It also points out rather forcefully, exactly what I've said all along. None of the NSA surveillance has anything whatsoever to do with terrorism - unless of course you believe that the NSA, FBI, CIA ETC. had no idea that all the terrorist organizations were fully aware of the NSA Global Snoop&Scoop Programs and had long ago stopped using any communication medium that is open to the agency's interception and collection programs.
Eventually, barring another major war, the simple fact that this is all about extortion/blackmail and the theft of corporate/industrial/commercial secrets and research, will come out in the Snowden Wash.
I can only imagine that the perps involved in this scheme are doing everything they possibly can to get another war started ASAP, because nothing sweeps dirt under the carpet better than a really good war.
Blackmail is a lovely business model for those who can wield the process successfully among the wealthiest members of society, because the victims never report the crime and the payoff is always extremely large.
By knowing the "extra-curicular" activities of CEOs, politicians, lawyers, high-ranking gangsters, presidents and kings, via communications interception, one can easily push one's own agenda internationally, by simply NOT telling what you know, and making your "targets" aware of what you're not telling.
For a government to indulge in this type of high-stakes extortion is especially effective, as the capital gained is unrecorded and can be used for other less-than-legal operations without fear of oversight, and the results of the process take place in the real world as if they were entirely natural.
It is the favourite passtime of Organized Crime, in all of its myriad legitimate disguises.
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason..."
The notion that disclosing information to the American People, that exposes the federal government's illegal activities, is not covered under the laws pertaining to treason might be wrong if the American Public has indeed been reclassified as the "Adversary" by the Federal Government.
If the American Public has been legally reclassified as the "Enemy", then anyone disclosing secret documents to the American public, is indeed guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy of the federal government and is therefor guilty of treason under the laws of the USA.
Remember, its all about how they "interpret" the law these days, not the letter of the law.
"Abuses, overreach and data collections amassed for the sake of collecting data -- an ultimately all for nothing."
This of course assumes that none of this information is being used for such things as blackmail/extortion, or simply to gather data on competing corporation's progress in fields of technology and trade, etc..
As has been noted on this site numerous times, when an organization works in secret, its operations will eventually be abused - used for nefarious and illegal purposes, since there is no consequences due to its secrecy.
Whenever an operation works outside of the law, but under guise of secrecy, its members will begin quickly to feel invulnerable- above the law - and begin to use the operation's ability to do things secretly, for personal ends.
How many years has the NSA been doing this?
How many years has it been abusing its own rules??
How many of these abuses have gone un-discovered??
How many abuses have occurred that have received extra consideration for cover-up by the agency due to their obvious illegal nature?
For each 1000 employees, how many criminal splinter cells might form specifically to carry out clandestine illegal operations such as extortion, outside of the agency's view and knowledge, but utilizing the agency's technology??
Perhaps we should be asking simply, what use COULD the NSA, and/or its employees, be putting all of this "haystack" of data to?
I'm certain that if you can imagine a use for such data, the NSA could also. The only difference is that there is absolutely nothing stopping the NSA from initiating such usages secretly.
One must remember that victims of blackmail hardly ever talk about the fact they are being blackmailed. After all, they are capitulating because the information held over their heads is embarrasing or potentially threatening to their liveliehoods, family, income, etc..
This makes blackmail, via communications interception, one of the most lucrative and care-free criminal activities conceivable.
Make the NSA pay a fine (drawn from taxpayer's pockets) whenever they get caught misusing taxpayer's money by breaking the "rules of engagement" laid out by law in their surveillance of the general public, known in-house as the "adversary".
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but how does this cause the NSA to stop violating their mandate and breaking the law by avoiding - or "misreading" the "rules of engagement" VS the adversary??
If I had to pay a fine to you every time I hit you, but I could drew the money for the fine out of your pocket, it would definitely not deter my attacks much.
There is actually only one reason why people go to these lengths in secret even after they've been caught, and that, in a word, is - "Money".
When you're stealing the world's business secrets, and their corporate plans and using intercepted emails, phone calls and letters to blackmail all of your club-member corporation's competition world-wide, every hour you can stay on the path means many more millions of dollars stashed away in your private offshore accounts.
Like the banks, the O.C. controlled member corporations running this show assume they will suffer no penalties because they have the full approval of the White House and operate under the special laws provided for just this purpose by the last few corporate-chosen presidents.
What you might want to ask yourselves, is "just what has Organised Crime been doing for the last 3/4 of a century with all of that untaxable drug money its been pulling in?"
Your country has been bought by organized crime and your government apparatus is being used to shake-down the world.
Like the banking scandal that nearly bankrupted the planet, this is just the mob in action, in office, doing what the mob does best - extortion, blackmail, theft and bribery.
On the post: NSA Memo Shows Unlimited Access To Bulk Records Unnecessary To Keep US Safe From Terrorists
A call to genius
What the world needs now, is a technology that can determine what text lies beneath the "redaction ink".
Considering how many of these censored docs are floating around today, an entire encyclopedia of hidden reality could be composed for the benefit of mankind and the detriment of the criminals that now form the bulk of government rosters.
A Best Seller indeed.
On the post: Feds: Even Though We've Been Ordered To Reveal Secret Interpretation Of The PATRIOT Act, We're Not Going To Do That
Letter of the Law
Well of course it is going to fight to keep it that way.
To allow the public to know how the fed uses the law to spy on the public, is in effect, aiding and abetting the enemy - of the fed.
That of course, is the fed's new secret interpretation of "treason" - giving aid or comfort to the non-wealthy public.
Let's face it. The only people that US law protects today, are criminals. You want to be protected by the laws of the land, you must join the ranks of the crooks, but you have to steal a bundle of cash first to prove you're worthy.
Reminds me of the way the wealthy ran the dark ages.
They gave the peasants a choice:
Join the ranks of the castled soldiers and get fed and housed in return for looting and torturing peasants, or remain a peasant.
On the post: The Most Nefarious Part Of The TPP Proposal: Making Copyright Reform Impossible
Business as Usual
Sounds like standard corporate procedure to me. After all, what corporation tells the public what its planning to do, when those plans are utterly detrimental to the public??
I see no reason why USA Inc., commonly known as the Federal Government, should warn the public of their plans to insure the eternal profits of their Entertainment Industry partners and friends at public expense and risk the public's angry response and possible failure of their plans.
That's simply not how corporations do things.
But you probably thought the US Federal Government was something other than the Entertainment Industry's Public Relations Contracter, didn't you. :)
On the post: Why Is Red Hat Associated With A Letter That Calls More User Rights In Copyright A Dangerous 'Contagion'?
Most of the legal work being done by these dinosaur corporations and their pet organizations is carried out behind closed doors, in secret, away from the public, because they rightly believe that the public would, were it to become aware of the desired maximalist results, interfere greatly with the construction of these new laws.
Currently, the public is still pretty much ignorant of this move to eliminate innovation and preserve the ability of the coporate owners of current inventions and art to profit eternally at public expense.
Should the public become aware of this, it could indeed create a situation similar in many ways to an epidemic of public interest, blowing away the ability of these "ownership maximalists" to work in secrecy.
There would be no cure for such a disease.
On the post: President Obama Says He Had No Idea His Own NSA Was Spying On Angela Merkel
slipping the trick
"...there is just no way that the President can be completely aware of all of the activities of every government department and worker at all times."
You must be using Alexander's public response instruction booklet above.
Nobody has ever even mentioned the idea that the President should, or can, be aware of every government worker at all times.
By slipping that little tid-bit in at the end there, you play the same game the NSA plays in every public statement it makes.
All you've done is label yourself as a shill, paid or voluntary, it matters not. Thank you.
On the post: President Obama Says He Had No Idea His Own NSA Was Spying On Angela Merkel
The Joys of Ususry
"Like reforming the currency system that currently demands the US government borrow a dollar from the federal reserve for every dollar minted,"
I believe that's $1.07 borrowed for every dollar printed actually. That's $1,070,000 to print $1,000,000.
The laws were changed to allow this top level "cream" usury charge.
That's where the "deficit" really comes from.
Usury; once established in society as "business-as-usual", knows no limits, and eventually, the lion's share of actual cash is stashed in banks as soon as its printed, so it can earn interest for the rich, which in turn removes cash from circulation and forces the Fed to have more printed.
A truly beautiful scam.
On the post: President Obama Says He Had No Idea His Own NSA Was Spying On Angela Merkel
First, Obama is an employee. He does what he is told and knows only enough to do what he is told. Obama cannot fire any of the NSA operatives, chiefs or spokespeople, as they are also just employees like him. Permission from the bosses would need to be secured first and Obama's bosses are simply ecstatic over the awesome job their employees are doing.
All one has to do is momentarily perceive the Fed as a corporate board of directors taking its orders from the men and women of real power and wealth who currently own the USA and all of these "odd occurrences" suddenly make complete sense, like the absolute lack of any disciplinary measures - or should I say the absolute lack of even the discussion of possible disciplinary measures - against anyone at the NSA.
Its pretty obvious, even for those without common sense, that if nobody is being disciplined for any of the dispicable actions of the Federal Security Industry, then everyone is doing their jobs exactly as they have been ordered to do.
Get used to it America. You have been invaded, conquered and occupied and now live under the rule of a foreign power - corporate wealth.
On the post: NSA Defender Argues That Too Much Transparency Defeats The Purpose Of Democracy
No Matter What!!!
Actually, the bolded part of this statement is incorrect.
Terrorists are not attacking the USA because they hate our freedoms, or our lifestyle, or any of the common but utterly silly rationalizations given by those who profit from having an "enemy" to blame things on and to use as an excuse for stripping Americans of every last right and legal protection in the name of security.
Terrorism - real terrorism - is entirely a response to Military Adventures by greater powers such as the USA, invading the lands and destroying the social infrastructures of resource-rich, or small, foreign nations, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, for domestic commercial reasons. It is a response to Empire Building.
If the Russians had invaded the USA and plowed all your homes into the ground and killed all your able-bodied men and boys and destroyed your hospitals, schools and businesses, you can damn well bet that American survivors would immediately become "terrorists" in the eyes of the Russian Occupation and would whenever possible, find ways to bring their anger to the shores of Russia itself.
That form of rebellion against invasion and eradication, is common to all nations, all peoples.
If you stop invading and destroying other people's countries and mass-murdering their citizens, you eliminate terrorism altogether, thus the no matter what part is removed from the equation altogether, eliminating the need to fight Terrorism altogether.
If you buy into the false rationalization that Terrorists exist because Americans have SUVs and flat screen TVs, then you might as well accept the rest of the Fed's crap and admit you believe that the NSA needs to have a Snoop and Scoop office in your bedroom to protect the USA from Alien Invaders.
... or have your tinfoil hat upgraded to sheet metal.
On the post: The Senate Is Sitting On A Devastating Report About How The CIA Avoided Oversight Of Unnecessary Torture Program
Prone to abuse?
But all that is necessary to understand what is actually taking place in the real world, is to realize that these reported "abuses of power" by various federal agencies are not abuses at all, but are in fact, the actual intended functions of the these agencies.
They simply believed, as do all criminals, that they would never get caught.
On the post: Instead Of Nominating New DHS Boss, Obama Should Look At Disbanding DHS
Clearance Sale!
The federal government in all its myriad hats has been a fully obsolete construct for well over 50 years.
As much as 90% of all Federal Government operations are designed to either appear to resolve crisis which the Federal Government, through its minions, has created beforehand, or to create crisis which it can later appear to be attempting to resolve.
The members of the federal government - mainly men and women of vast wealth - are well aware of its obsolescence and uselessness and they endeavour every day in every way at their disposal to insure its continuity and their own ability to feed at the public tax trough eternally, primarily by manufacturing false crisis which make the federal governement appear to be essential and necessary and through destabilization via the many three letter agencies it maintains for this purpose, such as the DHS.
All truly essential functions of the Federal Government could be easily handled by a pair of 13 year olds and a good computer.
Eliminating the Federal Government and its myriad agencies would save the US tax payers - and the tax payers of any other nation supporting a similar parasitic organism - hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with absolutely no noticeable effect on international and domestic intercourse, save possibly, a greater fluidity and definitely a huge increase in personal wealth among the public at large.
Like any large predator however, they will fight to the death to prevent their dissolution at the hands of their perceived prey.
On the post: Instead Of Nominating New DHS Boss, Obama Should Look At Disbanding DHS
Like a well oiled machine
It is simply that the DHS's real goals and the public's notion of its real goals, are two entirely different things.
As always with the Fed, what you see is never what you get.
For those interested, all that is necessary to discern its true goals, is to list its actual effects on the US constitution, law, public safety, national security and the bank accounts of its leadership.
mmmmmm - smeall that coffee eh!
On the post: NSA's Keith Alexander Doubles Down On His Plan To Spy On Wall Street To 'Protect' Wall Street
Misdirection
I would make it sound like all I wanted to do was protect them from bad guys, as if I was utterly unaware of the huge security breach such access would create for Wall Street.
That way they would keep on thinking I was some sort of moron, and keep on thinking the moron was NOT yet surveilling their whole system.
If you're still wondering why these guys retain their employment, this might lend a clue. :)
On the post: NSA's Keith Alexander Doubles Down On His Plan To Spy On Wall Street To 'Protect' Wall Street
The road to hell....
With all of the years of secret intrusions into the internet, including as it turns out, direct links to the web backbone, and NSA operatives creating backdoors into unknown web software with unknown capabilities, it occurred to me that it may now be possible for law enforcement to have "evidence" of wrong-doing, such a state secrets or kiddie-porn, planted directly onto a citizen's computer for later "discovery" by LEOs, eliminating the need to actually catch real bad guys and enhancing law enforcement's apparent effectiveness in the public's eye.
And then it occurred to me that real perps could use this very same process to deny ownership of real state secrets or kiddie porn they made or bought, that was found on their computers by LEOs, simply by claiming the LEOs had downloaded the material to their computers through the backdoors that have been manufactured for specifically that purpose by NSA operatives working inside IT companies.
In a way, the global surveillance of the public has created a near perfect escape clause for criminals who get caught with contraband material on their computer, since it is widely known now that Law Enforcement has the capabilities to pull off such stunts and the bad track record that proves they really would use it in such a manner.
At the same time, it has created a tremendous opportunity for Authority to plant evidence on the computers of innocents who have in some way, angered the powers that be or who stand in the way of those on top of the food chain getting what they desire.
They have done nothing to solve the known problems facing law enforcement through this overwhelming public surveillance, but have definitely created a greater problem than was originally apparent, both for the public and themselves.
On the post: DA Claims Mobile Phone Obsession Resulted In No One Noticing Guy With Gun On SF Train
Nobody noticed
Must have been a surveillance camera on board and an equally pre-occupied camera attendant somwhere I guess.
Personally, I give the story a BS rating of 10 out of 10.
On the post: Ex-MI6 Deputy Chief: 'Serious Actors' Already Knew About NSA's Techniques Before Snowden
It also points out rather forcefully, exactly what I've said all along. None of the NSA surveillance has anything whatsoever to do with terrorism - unless of course you believe that the NSA, FBI, CIA ETC. had no idea that all the terrorist organizations were fully aware of the NSA Global Snoop&Scoop Programs and had long ago stopped using any communication medium that is open to the agency's interception and collection programs.
Eventually, barring another major war, the simple fact that this is all about extortion/blackmail and the theft of corporate/industrial/commercial secrets and research, will come out in the Snowden Wash.
I can only imagine that the perps involved in this scheme are doing everything they possibly can to get another war started ASAP, because nothing sweeps dirt under the carpet better than a really good war.
On the post: Latest Leak Shows NSA Engaging In Economic Espionage -- Not Fighting Terrorism
By knowing the "extra-curicular" activities of CEOs, politicians, lawyers, high-ranking gangsters, presidents and kings, via communications interception, one can easily push one's own agenda internationally, by simply NOT telling what you know, and making your "targets" aware of what you're not telling.
For a government to indulge in this type of high-stakes extortion is especially effective, as the capital gained is unrecorded and can be used for other less-than-legal operations without fear of oversight, and the results of the process take place in the real world as if they were entirely natural.
It is the favourite passtime of Organized Crime, in all of its myriad legitimate disguises.
On the post: Though Wrong About 'Treason', Yahoo's Marissa Mayer Shows Why It's Hard To 'Just Say No' When The NSA Comes Calling
Not Treason... wanna bet
The notion that disclosing information to the American People, that exposes the federal government's illegal activities, is not covered under the laws pertaining to treason might be wrong if the American Public has indeed been reclassified as the "Adversary" by the Federal Government.
If the American Public has been legally reclassified as the "Enemy", then anyone disclosing secret documents to the American public, is indeed guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy of the federal government and is therefor guilty of treason under the laws of the USA.
Remember, its all about how they "interpret" the law these days, not the letter of the law.
On the post: Declassified Documents Prove NSA's Bulk Metadata Collections Completely Unnecessary
This of course assumes that none of this information is being used for such things as blackmail/extortion, or simply to gather data on competing corporation's progress in fields of technology and trade, etc..
As has been noted on this site numerous times, when an organization works in secret, its operations will eventually be abused - used for nefarious and illegal purposes, since there is no consequences due to its secrecy.
Whenever an operation works outside of the law, but under guise of secrecy, its members will begin quickly to feel invulnerable- above the law - and begin to use the operation's ability to do things secretly, for personal ends.
How many years has the NSA been doing this?
How many years has it been abusing its own rules??
How many of these abuses have gone un-discovered??
How many abuses have occurred that have received extra consideration for cover-up by the agency due to their obvious illegal nature?
For each 1000 employees, how many criminal splinter cells might form specifically to carry out clandestine illegal operations such as extortion, outside of the agency's view and knowledge, but utilizing the agency's technology??
Perhaps we should be asking simply, what use COULD the NSA, and/or its employees, be putting all of this "haystack" of data to?
I'm certain that if you can imagine a use for such data, the NSA could also. The only difference is that there is absolutely nothing stopping the NSA from initiating such usages secretly.
One must remember that victims of blackmail hardly ever talk about the fact they are being blackmailed. After all, they are capitulating because the information held over their heads is embarrasing or potentially threatening to their liveliehoods, family, income, etc..
This makes blackmail, via communications interception, one of the most lucrative and care-free criminal activities conceivable.
On the post: Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick Introduces Bill To Smack The NSA In The Wallet For Each Data Collection Violation
Make the NSA pay a fine (drawn from taxpayer's pockets) whenever they get caught misusing taxpayer's money by breaking the "rules of engagement" laid out by law in their surveillance of the general public, known in-house as the "adversary".
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but how does this cause the NSA to stop violating their mandate and breaking the law by avoiding - or "misreading" the "rules of engagement" VS the adversary??
If I had to pay a fine to you every time I hit you, but I could drew the money for the fine out of your pocket, it would definitely not deter my attacks much.
On the post: Declassified FISA Court Opinion Shows NSA Lied Repeatedly To The Court As Well
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There is actually only one reason why people go to these lengths in secret even after they've been caught, and that, in a word, is - "Money".
When you're stealing the world's business secrets, and their corporate plans and using intercepted emails, phone calls and letters to blackmail all of your club-member corporation's competition world-wide, every hour you can stay on the path means many more millions of dollars stashed away in your private offshore accounts.
Like the banks, the O.C. controlled member corporations running this show assume they will suffer no penalties because they have the full approval of the White House and operate under the special laws provided for just this purpose by the last few corporate-chosen presidents.
What you might want to ask yourselves, is "just what has Organised Crime been doing for the last 3/4 of a century with all of that untaxable drug money its been pulling in?"
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Wake up. Smell the coffee.
Your country has been bought by organized crime and your government apparatus is being used to shake-down the world.
Like the banking scandal that nearly bankrupted the planet, this is just the mob in action, in office, doing what the mob does best - extortion, blackmail, theft and bribery.
Yes Sally. It can happen here.
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